Jon Calabro

Disciplines: World History, Cultures and Civilizations, Geography, American History

The Vietnam Conflict was one of the influential, and infamous, wars to occur in American history. This war influenced an entire generation and made a country, once so self assured in its righteousness, question its role in the world. When the last American troops left Vietnam in 1975, they returned to a country that had essentially grown up and out of the idealism the country had wrapped itself into after the Second World War. The study of the Vietnam era, the years of 1965 to 1975, is essential for all Americans; this conflict has very serious repercussions in today’s world and still decides American foreign policy. Of all the lessons that can come out of the Vietnam conflict, there is but one that truly affects the students who will learn this lesson, the role of teenagers in American society. Often called the “Grunt’s war” most of the soldiers fighting in Vietnam were under the age of twenty-five and many had just graduated from high school. The teenagers who were not fighting the war on the frontlines found themselves in a war on the home front between the Hawks, those who were for the war, and the Doves, those who were against the war. Teenagers, from freshman in high school to juniors in college, were embroidered in this war and had to choose sides. This is the first time in American history that teenagers would help decide the fate of the American country.

Within this unit students will be introduced to a wide variety of information, all useful and important in the understanding of the Vietnam era. The goals of the unit are to alleviate the associations of Vietnam with loss, and replace it with found and give students an excellent understanding of Vietnam, a topic rarely discussed in school. This unit will be taught by direct instruction, inquiry, reading for meaning, classroom discussion, and through web quests, which will give students the background information they will need to understand why the Vietnam era even occurred. According to Rosenshine direct instruction is the best way to present new, unlearned, and possibly confusing, material.[1] However, many times students will have to call up their own thoughts and feelings pertaining to the era by reading poems from Vietnam and first hand accounts of soldiers who fought in the conflict. Classroom discussion will play a major role in this unit, allowing students to express their feelings on the Vietnam era openly as well as debate with other students over certain aspects of the conflict. This unit will also educate students in the geography of Vietnam, a most crucial aspect of the conflict, which can explain the difficulty American soldiers had fighting there.

With this unit, the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standard (NJCCS) 6.1 will be met, meaning that students will learn about the importance of democratic citizenship and how to participate in the constitutional system of government in the U.S. by studying anti war protests , as well as fulfilling (NJCCS 6.2) in which students will learn through the humanities and by reading stories by American G.I.’s as to why they went to war . NJCCS 6.3 will also be met when students gain a historical understanding of political and diplomatic ideas such as capitalism vs. communism, the domino affect, etc . The NJCCS 6.5 will also met when students gain historical understanding of varying cultures by reading poems and other writings from Vietnam as well as the NJCCS 6.9 in which students will acquire geographical understanding by the study of the environment and society. Finally the NJCCS of 6.7 will be addressed when students gain geographical knowledge through spatial terms by knowing where Vietnam is and what type of physical and social environment it is

The Vietnam era changed America forever, hopefully, through this unit, boys and girls who were not even a thought at the time of this, will understand it in way their parents and grandparents could not when they lived during this time.

I. Expansion of Communism in the world – the fall of China and separation of Korea.

II. The Major Soldiers in Vietnam – the major players in a U.S. history version of Vietnam

V. Anti War Movement – the movement in the U.S. and other countries in support of leaving Vietnam

The goal of this lesson is to inform students on the realities of the Vietnam conflict and the problems American troops dealt with while fighting in ‘Nam. From viewing the movie, students will get a better idea than simply reading or being told how the fighting was like in other lessons.

(1) Compare and contrast two of the main characters, Sergeants Barnes and Elias with the stereotypes of soldiers in Vietnam; the gung ho mildly insane soldier (Barnes) to the peaceful almost anti-war soldier (Elias),

6.3 All students will learn democratic citizenship through the humanities, by studying of political and diplomatic ideas, forces, and institutions throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the world.

This standard applies to the lesson because students will learn some of the major problems with the war in Vietnam by seeing how politics and diplomacy withheld much of America’s strength as well as causing major problems with American G.I.s.

For this lesson to be taught, the teacher will need a television, a VCR and the VHS tape of the movie Platoon. The students will need their notebooks out so they can take notes on the movie.

Before the lesson is even introduced, the teacher will hand out a form to the students that must be taken home to their parents and signed. The form will state that the parents acknowledge that the students will be watching an R-rated movie that deals with adult content and it will be alright for their child to view such a movie. If the parent does not sign the paper or if the student does not return the paper, the student will then receive an alternate assignment to be done the computer lab.

The teacher will introduce this lesson by telling the students that they will get to watch a movie for the next two to three classes, then inform the students that they have to take notes for an essay that they must accomplish at the end of the movie. The teacher will then insert the tape into the VCR, turn on the television, press play on the VCR and turn off the lights. While the movie is showing the teacher will observe the students, telling those who begin to talk to stop and start taking notes as well as waking up students who fall asleep.

Accordingly at the end of the video, the teacher will ask the students how they felt towards the movie, providing reasons for whether they liked it or hated it. The teacher will then give them the assignment.

After viewing the movie, students will be asked to write an essay pertaining to the three main characters, Chris Taylor, played by Charlie Sheen, Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe) and Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger). Within the essay, students will discuss what role each of the three characters played, what Vietnam soldier stereotype the actors portrayed, and if they felt that the movie correctly portrayed what they have learned pertaining to the Vietnam conflict. Not only will students have to write an essay but they must also participate in a class discussion pertaining to movie, such as how they felt about it, was too bloody? Did it glorify the war?

The student product will be the essay they must hand in the next class period. It will be graded on following the directions, correct grammar, spelling, and use of facts to back up opinion.

This lesson could be one of the more interesting lessons. It will allow students to watch a movie based on the first hand experiences of a Vietnam veteran and actually see how inglorious war, especially the Vietnam Conflict, was. However this lesson, especially this movie, should only be viewed and taught to mature students, meaning only students in high school should do this lesson. The movie contains many swear words and adult themes that small children should not be opened to. The essay will be graded on a point system, 20 points being the highest amount of points a student could get if their essay was done right. The student must follow the directions, use correct grammar and spelling as well as use appropriate facts to back up their opinion. Students who do this excellently will receive 20 points. However points will be taken away due to grammar problems like incomplete sentences or even sloppiness, and vast misspellings like 20 words spelled wrong. Points will also be taken away if students do not back up their opinions with facts.

I believe this project would have really opened the eyes of some of the students in the class. Of all the wars, the Vietnam conflict is one that really must be taught along with visual aids, that way students can understand why America faced so many problems there. It’s one thing to tell students that Vietnam was humid and a jungle environment, but until students see video clips of weapons malfunctioning due to the humidity and American soldiers getting killed because they could not see past a group of bushes, they will not really understand why the environment caused so many problems.

With this lesson, I want students to gain an understanding of the mentality of the Viet-Cong and how they viewed American involvement in their country. This will hopefully increase the students’ critical thinking ability as well as cause an open-mindedness that will allow students to see the United States in another light other than that of righteousness.

6.3 All students will acquire historical understanding of political and diplomatic ideas, forces, and institutions throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States and the World

This standard applies to this lesson because by reading the following poem, students will get an understanding of what many of the Viet-Cong or anti- American Vietnamese were feeling as well as the political force of communism in Vietnam. The strength of this poem is that students will not know that a Viet-Cong wrote it or the symbolism behind it. This lesson will be used to introduce students to the thoughts and beliefs of the Viet-Cong soldier.

Each student will be given a handout containing the following poem as well as a blank piece of paper to write a poem similar to the Viet-Cong poem, but instead written from an American point of view towards the Vietnam War.

The teacher will inform the students that history is an interpretive domain and that nothing in history is black and white, even facts can be changed to have other meanings. With this said, the teacher will hand out a poem written by a member of the Viet-Cong rebels, a poem that is strongly anti-American, but that hides its emotions in symbolism. The teacher will not explain what the poem is about or even who wrote it, he will ask the students to read the following poem and take into consideration the questions that come after the poem. This will take approximately five minutes.

Once ten minutes have passed, the teacher will ask for the students to get into groups of four to discuss the questions, and come an agreement on what the answers should be. Once 10 minutes have passed the teacher will call on various students to answer the same question or if they agree or disagree with another student’s opinion. If one question stirs more emotion than a previous one, or causes the most interest the teacher will focus on that question longer or go back to that question, depending on its order. This segment of the lesson will last approximately twenty minutes, giving each of the students to voice their opinion to its fullest extent and allow for good class participation.

When twenty minutes are over, the teacher will inform of the author of the poem as well as the symbolism in it, that America is the sky and the author is stating that if all the men work together, even America can be defeated. This segment will take five minutes.

The teacher will inform the student that for the next class period, the students must have written a poem in the same form as the one they read for this lesson, except that it must be written in an American view of the war. The teacher will explain that it can be either for the war or against the war, funny or serious, and the teacher will grade it on originality, correct spelling, correct grammar, and creativity. The teacher will also explain that it cannot be any shorter than ten lines.

The poem will be graded on originality, whether the students followed the directions or not, and the creativity of the poem. Students will receive letter grades for their poem.

With this lesson the teacher will further challenge the students’ critical thinking abilities with confronting them with the story of Lt. William Calley and the massacre at My-Lai. It is the teacher’s goal to cause a heated class discussion on whether what Lt. Calley did was a war crime or just a vicious, but totally legal, act of war. The teacher also wants to increase the students’ critical thinking ability.

6.4 All students will acquire historical understanding of societal ideas and forces throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the World.

This curriculum applies to this lesson because students will learn one of the highest debated topics in Global history, what constitutes as a war crime. This lesson explores the societal idea of a war crime, who perpetrates war crimes, and what should be done to the perpetrators of war crimes. This small inquiry lesson will be an introduction to the Massacre at My-Lai lesson and the following trial of Lt. William Calley.

For this lesson each student will receive a handout with the paragraph of information. The teacher will need a chalk/blackboard to draw a yes no chart on that will be filled with the students’ correct and incorrect answers.

The teacher will stand in front of the class and will ask students if they felt that the Germans at the Nuremberg trials were treated fairly and deserved the punishment they received. After 5 minutes of discussion the teacher will then give a hand out containing the following information paragraph for the students to read. The teacher will then direct the students to read the paragraph slowly and carefully. The teacher will also instruct the students to answer the questions following the paragraph correctly and truthfully in full sentences.

In the early morning three companies of soldiers stormed a small town looking for the enemy. The soldiers were nervous, this town was supposedly crawling with the enemy, an enemy who had tortured and killed two of its rivals only days before. Yet the soldiers did not find the enemy, nor did they find any weapons. But what really struck the soldiers as odd, was that there was not a single male in the village. The soldiers began opening fire and shooting at anything that moved. The soldiers raped many of the women before killing them and looted all of the homes before destroying them. When the troops were finished, all that was left of the village was a barren piece of land.

Once the ten minutes are up, the teacher will ask for volunteers to give their answers to the respective questions, allowing for a class discussion to ensue. However if no student wishes to volunteer, the teacher will begin to call on students, starting with those students who usually remain quiet and refrain from participating. The teacher will ask various students the same question or ask them if they agree or disagree with another student’s response. While this discussion is going on the teacher will be drawing a yes/no chart on the board. For each correct fact the students name, the teacher will put the fact in the yes column, for each incorrect response, the teacher will write it down in the no column. This action will go until five minutes are left in the period. The teacher will then ask the students to really think what this lesson is teaching about by using the entire yes and no answers as clues. Hopefully the students will get the answer before the class is over, however, if there a minute left and none of the students know or are willing to sleep on it and discuss the answer the following day, the teacher will hand out the following paragraph to explain what the information paragraph was on.

In the morning hours of March 16, 1968 Lt. William Calley lead 3 companies of the 11^th infantry brigade from the American Division to the small village of My-Lai 4. As soon as the American forces emptied out of the helicopters, a massacre took place. Using all the weapons the U.S. troops had, American soldiers looted, raped and murdered old men, women and children. Within three hours nearly the entire village population of 300 were wiped out, while the village itself was burned to the ground. Eventually the massacre would come out and Lt. Calley as well as his superior officers would be put on trial for war crimes. This massacre also helped in furthering the anti-war movement in the belief that this massacre was only the tip of the iceberg for American war crimes.

Although there is no “official student product” that means there will be nothing handed in, the students will still be responsible for participating, so in essence the student product will be the students’ responses during the class discussion. Granted there may be some students who are shy or too timid to volunteer their opinions, but that is why the teacher will call on these students to respond.

The students will be assessed by their oral participation in the class, even if they do not get the correct answer. This lesson is to open their minds and raise awareness on possible war crimes that occurred during the Vietnam War as well as if what Lt. Calley did was correct. The students will not be told the criteria of a good response; however the teacher will inform them that they will be graded on their responses. The teacher will give a check plus to those who participate correctly (raising your hand to be called on, respecting other students’ opinion) and backing up their opinions with correct facts to prove why they feel that way. A check will be given to those students who participate once or twice in the class discussion and give only mediocre and very few responses, such as “yeah I agree cause it’s right”. A check minus will be given to those students who participate only once in the class and did not contribute anything to the class discussion. A 0 will be given to those students who do not participate at all.

The goal of this lesson is to show the students what American soldiers were up against in Vietnam. Many students think of war as being a big battle with two armies, consisting of men in various uniforms fighting in the daylight and up close. It is the teacher’s goal to change that perspective by showing that wars fought by women as well and that war is not always out in the open. The goal is to show that the enemy in Vietnam was unknown and easily confused as a civilian, could have been anyone.

ü Consider the problems American troops put up with during the Vietnam conflict

6.5 All students will acquire historical understanding of varying cultures throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the world.

This curriculum standard applies to this lesson because by looking at the photo of a woman soldier, students will learn that in other cultures it is not odd to see women soldiers at the front line, or in this case giving orders over a radio. This photo will help students to better understand the challenges American soldiers had to deal with in the Vietnam conflict.

Each student will receive a handout with the photo of the Viet-Cong soldier along with the questions located beneath the photo. The students will need a separate piece of notebook paper to write their essay on.

The teacher will begin the lesson by asking the students which one of them would like to go fight the Iraqi’s right now with only a pitchfork or small knife. To the group of students that raise their hand saying they would, the teacher will ask why they would do something like that. To the students who would not go to fight, the teacher will ask them why they decided to abstain from fighting the Iraqi’s. This discussion should last about fifteen minutes.

The next step would be for the teacher to hand out the picture prompt work sheet to the students and read aloud the introduction as well as the directions – you are to study the picture slowly and carefully and answer the proceeding questions correctly, in full sentences, and to the best of your ability using correct spelling and grammar.

One of the major problems that U.S. troops met with during the Vietnam Conflict was the troop’s ill-preparedness against an unseen, often un-expected enemy. The Viet-Cong, or South Vietnamese Communists and the NVA, the North Vietnamese Army, would often count women and children among their ranks. The communist forces would not only use women and children as spies, but also as frontline combatants against the American troops, causing various problems for the Americans, especially psychological ones. A good American soldier soon realized that no Vietnamese could be trusted, if the soldier lived that long.

Study the photo above and then answer the following questions with the best explanation.

After fifteen minutes, the teacher will say pens down and ask for all the worksheets to be passed forward and handed in. The worksheets will be used for a class participation grade. Once all of the papers were handed in, the teacher will begin a discussion on the questions pertaining to the photo, asking the answers of various students. The teacher will then tell them what the photo is. This is a photo of a female teenage Viet Cong soldier giving orders over a radio. Most of the communist forces were teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19. She is broadcasting American troop locations out of a VC tunnel complex. Had an American soldier spotted her out of this tunnel, he might have let her go, not suspecting that this girl was the enemy.

The teacher will wait for the students’ reactions to die down and then the teacher will ask the students if they would like to change their minds about war or if they would like to go fight Iraq. This should take about 15 to 20 minutes overall. At the end of the class the students will be informed that they will now have to write an essay analyzing and identifying the enemy and their characteristics in the Vietnam Conflict. The essay will be graded on originality, correct use of facts, grammar and spelling. The students will also be informed that the essay must no shorter than two pages and no longer than two and half.

The student products will be the work sheet they fill out for this lesson and have handed in during class and the essay they must do for homework.

The essay will be graded on the correct use of facts, correct grammar and spelling, if the essay addresses the question fully (by identifying the enemy as anybody and truthfully analyzing the enemy tactics, such as stating “by using women, the Viet-Cong had a well hidden soldier that could travel amongst the Americans without them ever knowing”) The essay will be worth more than the class work and receive a letter grade, where as the work sheet will receive either a check plus (for the best), a check (for the satisfactory), and a check minus (for the unsatisfactory). The students’ work will be assessed by whether they followed the directions (if they wrote in full sentences, answered the questions completely and correctly, and used proper grammar and spelling) as well as originality.

The goal of this lesson is to teach students how to read a chart about the casualties and injuries Americans suffered during the Vietnam conflict. The goal is also to show students how charts and graphs can influence society; charts like this were used by serious anti-war protestors citing why America should leave Vietnam

6.4 All students will acquire historical understanding of societal ideas and forces throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the world.

This standard applies to the lesson because students will understand how graphs and charts influence a society, especially when those charts deal with American casualties and strengthen the anti-war movement at home.

Each student will receive a handout containing the chart and its’ related questions. The teacher will need a projector and a transparency of the chart to draw on and discuss.

To introduce the lesson, the teacher will state that there were over 50,000 casualties in the Vietnam conflict and that troops had to be on constant lookout for anything that could inflict an injury, such as snakes, booby traps, and of course enemy soldiers. With that said, the teacher will pass out the hand outs with the chart and questions, giving the students ten minutes to read the directions and complete the assignment.

Analyze the chart carefully then answer the proceeding questions in correctly, in full sentences, and to the best of your ability.

Once ten minutes have passed, the teacher will ask for the worksheet to be passed forward and handed back to him. Once the teacher has collected all of the papers, the teacher will then walk over to the projector, turn it on, and begin discussing the chart, explaining that it is a chart of the most frequent American injuries/casualties in the Vietnam Conflict. By going over the chart, the teacher will make sure the students fully comprehend what the chart is about and how it is read, that way if they made any mistakes when answering the questions, the student can rectify their misjudgments and not make the same mistakes later on. In total this lesson should take the teacher thirty minutes to complete, so it should be used on a “half-day” where the periods are shortened.

The student work product will be the work sheet that they hand in during class. It will consist of the chart and the questions that follow.

The product will be graded upon how well the students followed the directions; a check plus will be given to those students who followed the directions to a T, they answered in full sentences, used proper grammar, the correct spelling, and answered the answers to the best of their abilities. A check will be given if the work is satisfactory, such as all the answers have been answered, but only in fragments or have poor use of grammar. A check minus will be given to anything under satisfactory, such as a worksheet with only 3 questions answered, poor grammar, and bad spelling. In essence this assessment will go for class participation, a check plus will help a student get the higher grade if he is in between two grades, while a check will not change the grade at all, and a check minus will cause the student to get the lower of the two grades.

To the teacher, the goal of this lesson plan is to give students the basic information about U.S. involvement in Vietnam prior to 1965 and the major build up of American military forces in Vietnam. The teacher hopes that the students will find this basic knowledge useful in understanding the Vietnam Conflict and subsequent lessons

ü Orally evaluate the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the legality behind the resolution

6.3 All students will acquire historical understanding of political and diplomatic ideas, forces, and institutions throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the world

This curriculum standard coincided with this lesson because the lesson deals with the President Lynden Johnson propelling the United States into the Vietnam conflict under a new form of diplomacy, referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that would allow President Johnson to use the American military to keep the spread of communism to a minimum in the South Pacific. This lesson also hits on the politics of the time, discussing the fear of the spread of communism and how the President used this fear to start his own little war.

The teacher will use the teaching model of direct instruction to lecture to the students the basic information so that the students will be able to understand U.S. involvement in Vietnam prior to 1965.

The content involved in this lesson is a brief introduction to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam up to August 7, 1964. The main focus of this lesson is to simply give students the basis of why the United States was even in a place like Vietnam and how it got there. The content will open the door to students to understand the following lessons.

The general goal of this lesson is to inform students on the beginning of American involvement in Vietnam and to introduce the Vietnam unit before sending students into the gritty, confusing areas of the Vietnam era.

The students will be assessed at the end of the lesson by a brief oral examination, simply to check for understanding or an essay will be assigned, asking them to write a 2 page paper pertaining to their feelings about America’s official military entrance into Vietnam in 1965, whether it was good or bad, and if they think America belonged there. Essays will be graded on grammar, spelling, citations of correct facts to back up the students’ opinions.

To introduce the lesson to the students, the teacher will have handed out a picture prompt of a young woman sitting behind a microphone the day before the Vietnam unit is to start. On the day the picture prompts are due, the unit of Vietnam will begin, starting with this lesson. The teacher will explain to the students that Vietnam is rarely taught in school because of its complexity and the stigmas attached to it. The teacher will also explain that if a student gets confused, to simply raise his hand and ask for a better explanation or for the teacher to repeat what was said. However, the teacher will limit the amount of questions he takes during class, asking the students to hold their questions until the lesson is complete.

2. Allowed the president to “respond instantly with the use of appropriate force to repel any unprovoked attack against the armed forces of the United States.

a. Request from any country in Southeast Asia would include “all measures including the use of armed force to assist that nation in the defense of its political independence and territorial integrity against aggression or subversion

Throughout the lesson, the teacher will ask these questions, not only to make sure students are following the lesson but also to give them a rest from writing notes for a bit. The teacher will ask these questions at various points throughout the lesson, usually after the teacher has given the information to the question. It is also the hopes of the teacher to begin brief discussions pertaining to each of these questions.

4. What could have been some of the reasons for Johnson wanting a war with Vietnam?

To ensure that students are grasping the material, the teacher will ask more questions at the end of the lesson, such as

1. Who agrees with U.S. involvement in Vietnam? Why do you think that or why don’t you think that?

2. Do you think the French are to blame for the problems the U.S. found in ‘Nam?

These questions will not only show the teacher that the students understand the material but should also introduce some excellent discussions to the class which will get more student participation and will help students to remember the facts, it’s hard to forget something when you’re arguing either for or against it.

Although there will be no formal assignment for this lesson, students will be expected to have this information stored in their memory and use it on an up-coming test which will be based on all the introduction to Vietnam lesson plans. The students will be informed that there will be no homework the night this lesson is taught, but that they should go over their notes and read the material for an up-coming test.

The students will be taking notes as the lecture is occurring. From a previous lesson students will have learned how to take notes correctly and neatly so as to be legible for everyone to read.

For this lesson students will be graded on their participation, whether they were taking notes or just sitting idly by and wasting time. Throughout the lesson the teacher will be observing which students are taking notes, which students are answering the questions or raising their hands to participate in the class as well as which students are willing to participate in the various class discussions. Students who are correctly participating and adding valuable incite to the discussions as well as answering the questions correctly, as well as taking notes, will receive a check plus, students who participate, but usually get the answer wrong and rarely speak out will get a check, for those students who do not take notes and do not participate in the class at all, a 0 will be given.

Lesson Title: Hey Hey LBJ, How Many Lessons You got today Role Playing Lesson

With this lesson the teacher hopes to get the students to understand what it was like in the late sixties and early seventies to protest the war. Granted this re-enactment will not catch the spirit or truthfully display how a protest was like, but it will give the students a feeling of one.

6.4 All students will acquire historical understanding of societal ideas and forces throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the World.

This standard applies to the lesson because students will confront a situation pertaining to the anti-war movement in American society during the Vietnam Conflict. It is through these various roles that students must explore their own feelings towards societal forces of patriotism, citizenship, and America’s role in the world.

For this lesson the students will need scissors, big pieces of white construction paper, rulers (to be used as sign holders), and markers to write on the papers. The construction paper can also be used as draft cards or other items that might be used at an anti-war rally. The teacher will also use a video camera to tape the performances for later assessment.

To warm the students up to the actual role playing of being at an anti-war rally, the teacher will ask the students how they feel about the actions of the Doves (those that opposed the war) and the Hawks (those that supported the war) and as to whether they felt one was better or more correct than the other as well as why they feel that way. Hopefully this will result in an interesting class discussion attracting all of the students’ attention. Through the expected discussion, the teacher should have an easier time deciding which students may be better suited for certain roles in the group. This action will definitely raise awareness on the subject of the anti-war movement and get students in the correct frame of mind. This will also help the more shy students or student who are unsure of the side they would take to decide what role is more fitting for them (even though they may not get it) and will help them to participate within the group.

After the warm up, the teacher will break the class members into groups of four, one student will play the role of a dove or a strong believer that the war is wrong; one member will play the role of the hawk, or a strong believer that the war is correct; another member will play the role of a draft dodger and the final member will play the role of a returning soldier. It is up to the hawk and the dove to justify to the dodge drafter and the returning soldier which feeling is the correct one, this way there is a little leeway in the group and allows for possible movement. For example, the hawk and the veteran may unify to convince the draft dodger to enlist or to at least become a hawk or visa versa. However, this role playing scenario takes place at an anti-war rally, putting the hawk and returning soldier at a disadvantage. The dove and the draft dodger will be carrying anti-war signs and chanting various anti-war slogans, such as “Hey Hey LBJ, how many kids you gonna kill today?” Each of the participating students is expected to act out their role. If the student playing the hawk deems it fit to “verbally attack” the dove or the draft dodger feels like waiving his draft card in front of the veteran, it will be allowed.

Being that this role playing action is meant to raise a discussion later in the class, the observers will be informed to sit quietly and pay attention to the actors as well as show respect towards them. The teacher will also hand out a list of questions that the observers must answer for each enactment. Those questions are

o Did the actors clearly portray their roles? Who did or did not? Why do you feel that way?

The answers to these questions will help the teacher to assess the students on their portrayals and give them a deserving grade.

The students must enact their roles with originality and creativity and as though they were the character. Carrying signs and chanting will add to the reality of the protest as well as making mock draft cards and destroying them. The hawk must argue against the protest and possibly cause a ruckus, where as the dove is to be adamantly anti-war. Thus if the student who is picked to be a dove even though he sides with the hawks, he is expected to put his personal feeling aside and carry out his role. The most leeway though is given to the dodge drafter and the veteran, the students who portray these roles must act out their own feelings along with the feelings their roles would entitle them to. For example the student who is portraying the veteran, could decide to be anti-war because of what he had seen while over in Vietnam or he could go the entire other way and become a hawk. Likewise the dodge drafter starts out being a dove, but because of the hawk yelling at him for being unpatriotic, the dodge drafter could decide to enlist.

After each enactment, the teacher will give the students a preliminary grade based on originality, creativity and participation of each student. The teacher will ask the students what caused them to make certain decisions, like why a student portraying a veteran would be anti-war or why the draft dodger decided to high tail it to Canada at the end of the enactment.

If time permits, the re-enactment would simply call for the students who played the roles of the dove and the draft dodger to change and become the hawk and the veteran. This would be to see how the students, now in different roles, would portray that role. However, the re-enactment would only occur if time permitted it to, but it is not an important segment of the lesson.

7. Sharing Experience and Generalizing
Once every group has gone, the teacher will return to the discussion from the beginning of class to see if any students have changed their minds about being either a hawk or a dove due to the role playing. The students will share their feelings as to why they made certain decisions in their roles and what justified those decisions, whether it was because of their own personal feeling or because they were simply playing their part.

Although the students do not officially hand anything in, the student work product will be the video tape containing the groups’ performance.

The students will be assessed by their video, each student will be assessed by their participation with in the group, the creativity of the group (such as did they use signs, draft cards or did they just stand there) and the originality of their performance (or did they just steal another groups ideas and redo what another group have done) For groups that have done an excellent job, being creative, using all the members in the group, and being original, each member will receive the grade of an A. yet for each group that does not come that level of excellence, the grade will be lower. Each group though begins with an A, it is up to them if they wish to keep it or lower it by being un original, having only one or two members participate, or using no “props”.

With this lesson, the teacher intends to show the students the differences between the American soldier or grunt and the Viet-Cong or Charlie. The goal of this lesson is to better define the differences of these two soldiers and clarify to the students what the American soldiers were up against and how the war in Vietnam was different than any other.

Ø Compare and contrast the fighting styles of the Viet-Cong and the American soldiers

Ø Evaluate the reasoning of involvement in Vietnam by both the American view point and the Vietnamese view point

Ø By completing the chart, students will fully comprehend the lesson as well as understand the differences of these two soldiers

6.3 All students will acquire historical understanding of political and diplomatic ideas, forces, and institutions throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the world.

This curriculum standard applies to the lesson because students will be comparing two types of people, the Viet-Cong Soldier and the American Soldier, whom both have extremely different views of what is transpiring in Vietnam and the mix of political ideas in this conflict. By comparing the two views, students will truly get a better understanding of politics having force.

For this lesson the students will need a worksheet containing the following information as well as the visual diagram to place their answers in. The teacher will need projector and a transparency of the visual aid so as to fill in the answers along with the students.

To introduce the lesson the teacher will ask students if they thought the American soldiers were well prepared for what they faced in Vietnam. This will call for student participation and hopefully cause a good discussion as students make their opinions known. This segment should last about fifteen minutes, giving the students ample time to participate and debate with one another the topic. The teacher will than hand out the worksheet with the following information and visual organizer on it. The teacher will then separate the class into groups of four and inform them that they must read the information given and then fill in the chart. The teacher will also explain that they must work together in the group, respect one another’s opinion, and allow for each member of the group to participate. This is the information they must use.

The Vietnam conflict saw the clashing of the greatest military power, the United States, with a small, almost inconsequential, country of Vietnam, yet the seasoned guerilla fighters referred to as the Viet-Cong were able to soundly defeat this super power. Although both of these forces strove to better Vietnam, the Viet-Cong and the American forces had very different interpretations of Vietnam’s future.

To the Viet-Cong, America was just another foreign power attempting to dominate the Vietnamese and take the land away from the people. The American troops or “imperialist soldiers as the VC referred to them, were seen as stupid and clumsy, easy prey for booby traps and quick strikes. Although the Viet-Cong were pro communists and were supported by the communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA), the Viet-Cong did not push communist propaganda on its soldiers. A Viet-Cong Soldier was simply told to kill as many of the imperialists as they can which was made very easy with the AK-47 assault rifle as well as not fighting for land or territory. By 1966, it was obvious that “Charlie controlled the nights” as most of the VC attacks happened during the night.

For the simple VC soldier, the war was tough. Many were never trained, simply “drafted” by a Viet-Cong recruiter who would come to a village and ask “how long before the Imperialists steal your land?” Many of the VC were between the ages of 14 and 19 and the recruiters did not discriminate between men or women, “any Vietnamese would do,” became the popular saying among recruiters. Once recruited, the new VC troop was placed in a three man unit, which in turn was in a three unit platoon. Usually one of the three men in a unit was a “veteran” someone who had seen action before. The veteran was usually the only man with an automatic weapon. Being that the VC troops relied on guerilla tactics, they rarely carried more than 3 pounds of supplies, relying heavily on villagers for food and shelter. Many times the VC had to go without eating for days in fear of being caught off guard. However as the war progressed, the VC troops received better equipment, funneled from the NVA from the Soviet Union and China. But what made the Viet Cong soldier unique was his fanaticism to kill and succeed. The VC rarely took prisoners and truly wanted the Americans out.

To the early American soldiers or “grunts” entering Vietnam, this “backwater” country was to be the seen of a battle between Democracy and the vile communist expansion. To many of the American troops it was better to “fight the commies here instead of in America” and that a victory in Vietnam would stop the dreaded Domino Theory from ever taking place. Not only that but many U.S. troops believed that American involvement would better the Vietnamese by bringing doctors and medicine to the people as well as democracy.

The U.S. troops were filled with optimism, the American military had never been defeated and since the Second World War, it had been the greatest power in the world with only the Soviet Union in a close second. Many troops thought that the Vietnamese would be pushovers. As the American entered into Vietnam, the war was believed to end quickly, even though many of the troops were in their late teens and early twenties.

The American troops themselves had only idealism as an explanation as to why they were fighting in Vietnam. Eventually the U.S. government would institute a draft to get able bodied men to go to Vietnam. These men were well fed, and believed to be well prepared for the war. Yet most Americans had never fought in a jungle and many of the weapons that America would use were not prepared for the humidity or denseness of Vietnam. The mighty tank became obsolete. The M-16, the standard issue rifle for the U.S. troops would malfunction because of the humidity. Eventually the Americans relied on numbers instead of weapons. U.S. troops could rarely depend on the Vietnamese villagers for any help and often used the Vietnamese tax collectors as translators and guides. The American troops rarely depended on the South Vietnamese government, citing it’s corruption and lack of military abilities.

The American forces relied on the tactic of “seek and destroy” meaning that the soldiers would go out and look for any VC cells, usually the unit consisted of 4 to 6 men, one being the point man who had the job of walking in front to spot booby traps.

For the American forces, the best time to attack the Viet-Cong was during the day when pilots could see the enemy and perform air raids on enemy installations to help the American forces gain territory and “free” captured villages. The U.S. aircraft would usually drop Agent Orange, a defoliate, on the jungle to clean out the brush to help locate the Viet-Cong. These tactics helped in the short term but would often turn up empty.

It is odd that one of the greatest military powers in world history, the United States, would meet its match not with the Soviet Union, but with a small band of guerillas in a then unheard of country called Vietnam.

The students will have fifteen minutes to read the information and fill in the chart by working together. Once the fifteen minutes are up, the teacher will turn on the projector with the transparency of the chart. The teacher will then ask the students to volunteer the answers to fill in the chart. However, if none wish to volunteer, the teacher will begin to call on groups, beginning with the group that may have not have completed the chart. This segment will last for the remaining fifteen minutes of the class allowing for the chart to be completed.

Although the work sheet is the student product, they will not have to hand it in during or at the end of the class.

The students will be assessed by their participation in the group; as they are working the teacher will be walking around taking notice of the participating students and the students who are sitting idly by allowing the work to be done without them. The teacher will inform the students that are not participating that they should start as well as informing the students who seem to be dominating the group to allow others to participate and voice their opinions. To those students who participate within the group as well as for those who participate when the teacher calls on them, they will receive a check plus, for those students who only somewhat participate, possibly by offering their own opinion only rarely, they will receive a check, and for those students who do not participate, a check minus will be given.

Jamieson, Neil L. Understanding Vietnam. 2^nd ED. California, University of California Press. 1995.

This book contains many of the Viet-Cong writings and an explanation of the Vietnamese people, as well as the history of Vietnam. Only a few select readings would come from this book, but the information will be useful to the students in understanding the Vietnamese.

Page, Tim and John Pimlott. Nam: The Vietnam Experience 1965-75. Hong Kong: Barnes and Noble Publishing. 1995.

This book will be the main source for student reading as well as where many of the class assignments. It contains invaluable information on the Vietnam Conflict which can be easily accessed by students for this information.. The book includes numerous photos, drawings, graphs and newspaper articles from the era and from both points of view and probably would be the text book for the class.

This website contains the most in-depth information on the trial of William Calley, containing the transcripts from his trial as well as some newspaper clippings pertaining to the trial.

This website is helpful for students who wish to get more in-depth on certain topics of the Vietnam War, such as when they have to write a term paper, or to create a study guide for the tests.

This website will help students with learning about the environment of Vietnam and it jusngle environment. This website contains excellent maps of the South East Asian area.

Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

This book contains much more in-depth information the Nam but it is a hard read and contains no photos or graphs. That is why this book is essentially for teachers to get more information out of for the lessons. However, the teacher will use Nam to assign readings and be used as the main source of test information

This website contains a semi-web quest tech project that would really cause students to think like an American Soldier in Vietnam and appreciate their family. This is a good lesson to perform in the computer lab

This website contains lesson plans pertaining to various aspects of Vietnam, such as the containment theory and a lesson on returning troops called Coming Home.

[1] Woolfolk498

[2] Neil L. Jamieson. Understanding Vietnam. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995. 284

Criteria	Differences (U.S.)	Similarities	Differences (VC)
Involvement
Fighting Times
Fighting tactics
Fighting ability
Support from the Vietnamese
Funding

Criteria	Differences (U.S.)	Similarities	Differences (VC)
Involvement	Stop the spread of Communism	Make Vietnam a better place	Stop the spread of Imperialism
Fighting Times	Day		Night
Fighting tactics	Seek and Destroy, air raids		Guerilla fights, booby traps
Fighting ability	Never trained for jungle warfare	Dedicated fighters	Used to the environment, fought jungle wars before
Support from the Vietnamese	Small, mostly useless, supported by the South Vietnamese government		Extremely important, kept them alive at times; supported by the NVA
Funding	Soldiers were well fed, had good weapons, and were well treated		Relied much on themselves, captured weapons, not truly government funded

Target Code	Description of Assessment
Knowledge 1	Selected response (matching)
Knowledge 2	Interpretive assignment (identifying locations on a map
Affects 1	Creative writing in the form of a letter
Affects 2	Writing an essay
Affects 3	Writing a poem
Reasoning 1	Binary testing
Reasoning 2	Class discussion after viewing the movie Platoon
Skills 1	Writing assignments
Skills 2	Oral examination
Skill 3	Reading a Chart, fill ins
Product 1	Term paper
Product 2	Video tape of students giving a presentation
Product 3	Observational assessment